Deltarune: Things I Never Told You

Old Saves, Same Endings

Papyrus--

I pet her hair softly, my fingers tracing down to her jawline. Slowly, her face shifted in my hands and the corners of her mouth twitched in a smirk. I smile back, relaxing. "Ah, glad to see you again," I murmur.

She croaks something quietly. Unable to hear it, I lean in, her breath brushing my cheek. "What was that?"

"It's nice to still be me," she grins. "You know, I had my hand around the save from the house for so long..." she coughs, rolling to face me a little better. "I thought it might be better to just go back and undo all of this..." I try not to act surprised, because she's right. It concerned me that she would give all this up that easy, but it scared me more that she seemed so calm about it.

"The last save? From just after we got out of the Underground?" I smirk. "That's a long way to go back... nearly 20 years, Frisk..."

She shrugged, clearing her throat. "It'd be worth it to save Kris from her..." she trails. "How is he?" Her eyes were tired and strained, but she sat up painfully anyways, leaning on my side. Her body was warm, warmer than it had been, and it was nice to have her near again. In fact, we hadn't been this close since... well, before Kris.

"He's okay, well, at least right now," I admit, watching his chest gently rise and fall as he pressed his back into Susie's. She grumbled something and scooted away, and I chuckle softly. "Those two, well, three, make quite a team," I murmur. Ralsei huffed, curled up at the feet of the two larger bodies. "Kris seems so sure of himself here... reminds me of someone, hm...?" I joke, nudging her. She grunts.

"Eh, well. It's just like that I guess. Kid didn't fall too far from the family tree." She shifts, giving another sickly cough. "Ugh, this sucks," she whispers. "I always hate the way getting stabbed feels..." She rolls back onto the bed, looking up at me. "Do you think it's worth it? To go back to that point...?"

I look away, frowning, watching as Seam and Sans walk into a room separate from us. That gave me a bad feeling...

She pulled on my sleeve. "Russ, hey. I need you, okay? I need... some help." She huffs.

I frown, still looking away. "You want to know if I think you should go back to that save, huh?" I feel the apprehension growing in my gut. She is always running from her problems! She uses that damned save like it's a free ride, like it's the solution to everything... I exhale frustratedly, rubbing my temple. "Frisk, honestly... I don't know!" I say harshly.

She lets go of my sleeve, "...oh." Her voice breaks.

I recoil, putting my arms into my lap. "Mm, sorry. It's just... Frisk, you can't keep running from these things. You can't keep trying to reset to the good part. I know things were easier when, well, it was just me and you, and just... life without the difficult things. To go back when monsterkind was safe on the surface, before we had Kris, before we knew everything was going to work out... when you were younger... all of those things... Frisk," I falter, looking at her. "You can't look at me dead in the eye and tell me that you would change those things. If you follow the same path at each save, you're going to end up in the same place! This is the reality you chose. This is us, and this is Kris, and this is Chara, and Asriel, and everything. You chose this, and this is how it turns out. Going back... Frisk, that won't change anything, and you and I both know that."

She sits up indignantly, "We could save him! We could stay together, and raise him like we wanted to, and we could keep him safe... We could still... be together..." she frowns, hand clutching mine. "Fuck, Russ," she breathes, realizing the weight of it all. "You're right..."

"The only way to change this..." I frown, looking at her hand in mine, noticing her ring still hung around her ring finger. I thumb it softly, feeling a pang in my chest. "...is to reset and forget we ever had all of this. I mean, I won't know any better, right? What would it kill me to never know about all this? Maybe I'd be better off..." I trail, feeling tears well in the corners of my eyes. "God, this sucks." I look over her, rubbing her long, dark, wavy hair from her face. It was stuck by blood in some places, but I gently pushed it back anyway. It cut me deep to see her this way...

"No." She states, grunting as she sits up again painfully, grabbing my jaw with both hands. "No, Russ. I can't do this without you." She thumbs my jaw and pulls me in for a hug, wrapping me close. "That's the only thing I can't change. We were meant to be together long before we ever existed. I just feel it in my bones, you know?" She huffs, still hugging me tight.

I exhale. "Yeah, me too."